Linking accounts

[kohler]

HotCRP needs to better support people with multiple email accounts.

Frequently a user interacts with HotCRP using a “primary” email (say [email protected]), but uses another “secondary” email for public purposes, such as in author lists or for program committee invites (say [email protected]). HotCRP's “merge accounts” lets a user merge the secondary account into the primary. However, this must be done once per conference, and it doesn’t stick—if a user registers another paper under the secondary email, the secondary account is created again. Many people with multiple accounts confuse themselves by attempting to do actions using account A that only would work on account B.

I propose to introduce an “account linking” feature. If a secondary account is linked to the primary, then all site actions on the secondary user would be redirected to the primary user. Linking accounts would require both accounts' passwords.

• If a chair added the secondary account to a conference PC, the invitation would be redirected to the primary account.
• If a PC member requested an external review from the secondary account, the request would be redirected to the primary account.
• If a submitter listed the secondary account as an author, then the primary account would be added as a contact. (The author email in the author list would remain the same as the secondary account.)
• If a submitter listed the secondary account as a contact, then the listing would be redirected to the primary account.

But questions remain about how to do this.

• Should searches be redirected? For example, should a search for au:secondaryemail be interpreted as au:primaryemail? I think the answer is no.
• How should past conferences be handled? For example, if a user in 2020 links accounts, should that go back and change conferences that closed in 2019? I think the answer is yes.
• How many emails should be sent? For example, when both primary & secondary emails are associated with a paper, should author email be sent to both emails? I think the answer is that emails should be sent only to the primary account.

I'm interested in any feedback.

[drkp]

I'd find this really useful! I often find myself with multiple accounts after people use different email addresses for me when registering papers.

As for the questions:

• I have no opinion about searches.
• I'd like it to support past conferences, so that if I want to go back and look at a previous conference, I don't have to remember what account I was using at the time.
• I'd prefer to receive only one email, but as an author the email volume is low enough that I don't feel that strongly about it. (As a PC member, I'd be pretty annoyed if I were receiving multiple copies of every email, but I don't think that was something you were proposing.)

[kohler]

A potential problem with past conferences is that both the primary & secondary accounts might have a review for the same paper. Ugh

[weikengchen]

Can people change their primary account (setting one secondary account as the new primary)?

This would be useful for researchers who use the school's email address but relocate to another school. Especially, some schools do revoke email addresses when one leaves, after a grace period... especially for postdocs.

[nc2y]

As somebody exactly in the case Eddie describes above (five email addresses at the same institution), I'm strongly supportive. I'm tired of using the merge feature!

• Should searches be redirected? For example, should a search for au:secondaryemail be interpreted as au:primaryemail?

I have no strong feelings one way or another.

• How should past conferences be handled? For example, if a user in 2020 links accounts, should that go back and change conferences that closed in 2019?

I vote yes. This could give people access to their older reviews, after switching departments/universities.

• How many emails should be sent? For example, when both primary & secondary emails are associated with a paper, should author email be sent to both emails? I think the answer is that emails should be sent only to the primary account.

I agree.

[JuliaLawall]

I would like to change my email, and I would like to still have access to the history of my old conferences. I'm willing to change the email of each one, even though that would be rather tedious.

I tried changing the email in the profile page, but the confirmation seems to be asking me for the password of the account that I want to change to. That account doesn't have one. Do I have to wait until someone invites me to a PC with the new email address, so that an account exists?

I tried this previously, but at that time I didn't have the password of my current account. My previous attempt ended up in an inconsistent state, where the email was changed in some places but not in others. Now I do have the password of my current account, but I still don't know how to proceed.

[davidchisnall]

I'd be happy if the merge were a true (i.e. the resulting account had two email addresses associated with it). I use my .cam.ac.uk email address for HotCRP, but my microsoft.com one is the most visible public one, so every conference someone creates a new microsoft.com account for me that I then have to merge with my cam.ac.uk one. It would be great if HotCRP could just treat both as identifiers for the same account (ideally allowing only a designated one to be used to log in: there's no reason that my login name should be the same as my public email address).

[tgamblin]

I'm having exactly the issue that @davidchisnall mentioned, and his solution would work well for me. Linklings associates multiple emails with a single account and does pretty much what is suggested here -- it works well. I've had to merge 3 times so far for one conference with HotCRP.

[JuliaLawall]

What is the consequence of "Keep the account named above and delete my current account". If the current account is deleted, does its entire history disappear? Or does it get propagated to the new account. By entire history, I mean not just my reviews, but also knowledge of the fact that my previous account was the program chair of a conference.